Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2), also a declared 2025 candidate for Jersey City mayor, has started an online petition to fight potential state cuts to funding local pre-K programs.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“If these funding guidelines are implemented now, it would cause irreparable harm to an early childhood system that is cited as the gold standard across the country. Many centers would be forced to close classrooms or even entire facilities,” O’Dea said in a statement.
“After struggling with the unprecedented difficulties and circumstances brought on by the pandemic, our early childhood education system does not need this burden placed upon it. The Abbott Preschool Program is required by law to offer high quality preschool programs to fulfill its obligation per the School Funding Reform Act. This directive by the Department of Education flies in the face of that law,” which is also noted in the petition.
O’Dea, who put up a resolution last week urging the New Jersey Department of Education not slash any Jersey City pre-K funding, indicated that the cuts are expected to take place on February 1st.
He indicated today that it would be cumulative loss across all schools of about $3 million. For the current fiscal year, the Jersey City pre-K program receives $71,206,864.
As of this writing, the Change.org page has 227 signatures, though O’Dea said over 2,000 signatures have been collected in person.
NJ DOE spokesman Mike Yaple did not get into the specifics in Jersey City, but explained that overall, they are changing the way they evaluate pre-K programs back to how they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Prior to COVID-19, funding for preschool providers was based on the number of filled seats. During the pandemic, the New Jersey Department of Education (Department) based funding for preschool providers on whole classrooms (defined as 15 students), rather than the number of students,” he told HCV.
“This change was because it would have been difficult to count “filled seats” with many children learning virtually. Children have since returned to in-person instruction, therefore the Department looks to return to funding based on the number of filled seats, as it was prior to the pandemic. (Note that the funding flows through the district to the preschool providers; it is not sent directly from the Department to the pre-k providers).”
He added that the department will stay in communication with districts and private providers who will be impacted.
